More than 3,000 investors fell into the trap of a virtual currency project, having about 200 billion VND appropriated.
The police have just dismantled a group of people who issued and promoted investment in virtual currency projects. From 2022 to now, the subjects have mobilized up to 7.86 million USD (equivalent to about 200 billion VND) from more than 3,000 investor accounts.
Previously, through the work of grasping the situation, the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control, Hanoi City Police discovered that Dang Quoc Thang (born in 1986, residing in Hanoi) established Maxx Group Company to promote and introduce projects.virtual currency, notably there are 2 projects: “Wingstep” and “Game Naga Kingdom”.
For each virtual currency project, Thang receives a percentage proportional to the project owner (from 5% to 50% of the amount raised). Ngo Khac Trung (born in 1991, residing in Thanh Hoa province; Director, legal representative of Maxx Group Vietnam Co., Ltd.) is Thang's subordinate who will promote and introduce to attract investment in the projects.
Accordingly, investors will download the “Wingstep” application on the website “moiza.io”, deposit BUSD virtual currency (1 BUSD is equivalent to 1 USD) into their account, then buy NFT shoes priced from 100-1,200 USD per pair. Every day, turn on the Wingstep application to walk or run to receive rewards in WST virtual currency, then convert to BUSD.
Thang introduced this Korean project, which is a project that brings high and long-term profits. For each participating customer, the subjects will receive 5% of the investment amount with F1, 3% of the investment amount of F2. After that, Thang and the subjects organized media and promotional events to attract investors to this project.
The total number of customers who invested in the Wingstep project is about 50 customers with an amount of about 300,000 USD (equivalent to 7.2 billion VND). The Wingstep project operated from May 2022 to August 2022, then it was no longer liquid and investors could no longer withdraw their money. All of the investors' money was appropriated.
For the Naga Kingdom Game project, participants will buy NFT game characters such as: Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pig... also known as "Spirit Beasts" with prices ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of VND (for example: NFT Pig costs 400 million VND). After buying NFT, investors play the game to earn rewards in virtual currency "Maga" and then convert them to BUSD.
This project was developed by Dang Quoc Thang in collaboration with the project owner Nguyen Thanh Loc (born in 1997, residing in Ninh Binh province) to promote and attract investors to the project. Thang introduced this as a Blockchain application game, with NFT issuance, the project brings high profits (from 5-8%/month), the referral commission is 10%/on the total investment amount (5% F1, 3% F2 and 2% F3).
During the process of introducing and consulting to customers, a total of 20 customers invested 60,000 USD (equivalent to 1.5 billion VND) in this project. However, after about 3 months of operation, the Game Naga Kingdom project "collapsed" and could no longer be played. Customers who invested in this project all suffered losses, losing all their investment money.
At the police station, the subjects admitted that the above projects were not licensed to operate in Vietnam, but because of the profits they received, when consulting and introducing to customers, they gave good project information, quick capital recovery, high profits. But in reality, the projects only operated for a short time, then had errors, stopped operating, customers could not withdraw money and all suffered losses.
Based on collected documents, on August 1, the Hanoi City Police Department issued a decision to prosecute the criminal case and prosecute the accused, and issue an arrest warrant to detain three subjects Dang Quoc Thang, Nguyen Thanh Loc, and Ngo Khac Trung for the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation".
Currently, there are still many investors whose assets have been appropriated when participating in projects of Dang Quoc Thang and his accomplices. Hanoi City Police request that anyone who is a victim of the above projects contact the Criminal Police Department (Mr. Doan Van Bang - Phone: 0904.635.467) or the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Mr. Nguyen Hong Tien: 0902.136.588) to resolve the matter in accordance with the law.
